Arts director Pierre Audi has died aged 67

French music festival Festival d'Aix-en-Provence has shared the news that general director Pierre Audi has died aged 67. In a statement released on Sunday (4 May) the festival stated that the celebrated director and arts leader died suddenly on 3 May while travelling in Beijing.

Born in Beirut, Audi moved to France with his father, banker Raymond Audi, and mother Andrée Michel Fattal, at a young age, going to school in Paris before studying Oriental studies at Exeter College, Oxford. As founder of London’s Almeida Theatre from 1979 to 1989, from the age of 22, Pierre campaigned for and oversaw the transformation of a derelict Islington building into a thriving hub for the arts. He then spent three decades at the helm of the Dutch National Opera, before leading the Holland Festival between 2004 and 2014, and New York’s Park Avenue Armory from 2015.

In a statement released on 3 May, the Dutch National Opera said: ‘With the passing of Audi, the opera world has lost an absolute icon, who has worked tirelessly and with great dedication for the art form. He was an enormous force in the arts, as artistic director, curator and, of course, as a stage director. He leaves a lasting mark on the Dutch opera, music and theatre world.’

Audi took on leadership of the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence in 2019, with memorable productions during his tenure including Mozart's Requiem and Mahler's Resurrection directed by Romeo Castellucci, as well as the launch of a free festival for the city. Audi’s commissions in the role include Kaija Saariaho's Innocence, Pascal Dusapin's Il Viaggio, Dante and George Benjamin's Picture a Day Like This.

In a statement, the festival team said: ‘The world of artistic creation has lost an immense artist and institution director, a citizen of the world who lived at the crossroads of Mediterranean and Western cultures. As a stage director, he devoted himself entirely to the works, his productions combining a sense of narrative, purity and embodiment – spanning four centuries of music, but with a particular predilection for the baroque era, the works of Wagner and contemporary opera.’

The Festival d'Aix-en-Provence team closes its statement by writing: ‘[Audi] was a great believer in the future of opera (and music theatre), an art form which he considered best of all capable of overcoming all crises. At this time of great sorrow, our warmest and most heartfelt thoughts go out to his wife and children, his family and friends.’

Audi is survived by his wife, Marieke Peters, and his children, Alexander and Sophia, his brother, Paul, and sister, Sherine.